Green Bunny Has Surgery

Morgan's all time favorite comfort toy is a little plush green bunny that showed up in his Easter Basket when he was two. This poor bunny has been through a ton of washing and Morgan must have him almost every night to sleep. His name, appropriately enough, is Green Bunny.

He used to play the Bunny Hop if you pressed a button in his tummy but long ago he lost his voice and has been steadily getting skinnier and skinnier as his stuffing is worn and he's just has too much love. He's been to my office with me and sometimes has come on a ride to the store (though he has to wait in the car). The days when we can't find Green Bunny by bedtime are never easy though not as bad now as they were when Morgan was younger.

For a while I've been telling Morgan that I will need to carry out bunny surgery on Green Bunny to take out his broken voice box before it makes him sick (I'm concerned the batteries will leak). It took a few repetitions to convince Morgan that this did not mean that Green Bunny would be able to sing again.

I thought he would be traumatized by the very concept of having to cut Green Bunny open but he seemed to consider the concept for a day or two and then started asking me to do the bunny surgery. Well - at least there wouldn't be wailing.

This morning I decided to do it. Morgan and I ceremonially selected a thread that would match Green Bunny's fur and my sharpest scissors as well as new stuffing to help plump Green Bunny up again.

We set up the operating room (aka tray table) for the surgery with all our tools and reassured the patient.



Morgan and I discussed the surgical options and Morgan decided the best place for the incision was on Green Bunny's back, just above his tail. I made a careful and straight incision into the patient.



After making sure Green Bunny was still okay, I began to explore for the voice box. Because of the way it was anchored into him, it took the evacuation of most of his body stuffing to find it.



Finally the broken voice box was located and removed and any stuffing that didn't appear in good shape was removed at the same time.



Now that Green Bunny was free of his diseased voice box, he was given fresh clean stuffing to plump him up again and carefully sewn shut with two rows of nearly invisible stitches.



After the patient was reassured and woke up in recovery, Morgan pronounced him fat and happy again and all better.



Now Green Bunny can sit up unaided and once more looks as plump as a Green Bunny should look. Morgan says he was only scared once, during the cutting, and I told him how very careful I was to use very sharp scissors and not hurt him.

All in all - a very successful operation and I predict the patient has years of life left in him.